How to deal with negative feedback on Social Media

When managing a community on Social Media, at one point or another you will unfortunately come up against negative reviews or feedback.

As with everything on Social Media the feedback is usually done publicly on your business page.

Take a current client we have been working with recently. The majority of time we are engaging with happy customers and 5 star reviews, however we do occasionally have to manage an unhappy customer or review.

So here are our top tips for managing negative feedback.

1. Don’t ignore the review or hide it

I get it you see a negative review and instantly want to remove it (that is natural) but definitely isn’t the best way to handle an unhappy customer. It will more than likely make the customer more agitated.

What you should do:

Respond quickly to the feedback

Acknowledge their concern and state that you take all comments and feedback on board

Ideally if possible get them to move it to a private conversation so that you can settle any issues offline

The benefit of doing the above rather than deleting or hiding the feedback is that potential customers will get an insight into your customer service. It also shows transparency in your business.

2. Respond politely and avoid getting into a public slinging match

Always remember to respond politely to the reviews (no matter how personal or hurtful the comments are).

Let the customer rant but always keep your calm. It is hard but it will show other people just how amazing your company is by responding with grace.

If they continue to make unacceptable or offensive feedback then you can then look at banning this person from the page.

Note: Banning is an absolute last resort

3. Learn from it

Negative feedback can be a blessing in disguise. Use the feedback to look into your processes and make improvements.